Noe Garza (third from right, holding documents) was accompanied by several current and former players while he was honored for his 30 years of coaching during the opening ceremonies of the Bishop-Driscoll Little League organization held at the Bishop High School Gym on Monday. Baseball Skipper Noe Garza was honored during the Bishop-Driscoll Little League Association’s season opening ceremonies held at the Bishop High School Gym on Monday.

The community-wide accolade came as a total surprise to Garza, who has coached little league players for 30 years.

In that span, Garza’s Cardinal teams have finished in first place 20 times.

Garza was brought before hundreds in attendance and awarded a proclamation by Mayor Victor Ramos that declared April 12, 2010 as ‘Noe Garza Day’.

After that, Garza’s daughter Jennifer offered some heartfelt words about her father and the two of them then hugged.

Current and former players – including one from his first ever team - stood behind Garza at midcourt and applauded during his moment of recognition.

“I appreciate everything everyone has done for me and my family tonight,” Garza said afterwards. “I don’t know what to say but thank you to everyone including the community officials.”

Mentoring Bishop’s little boys has been one of Garza’s biggest motivators in his three decades as a coach.

“Every year I say I am going to stop but then I see these kids coming up in the draft and they motivate me to keep going,” Garza said. “Another year passes by, more kids come up and I just keep going.”

Garza is a 1980 graduate of Bishop High School where he was a member of the Badgers’ first organized baseball teams and an alldistrict player.

“I just love the game of baseball,” Garza said. “I see some of these guys (former players) at the store and now they are 30 or more years old and coming over and saying ‘Hey coach, how are you doing’ and they have their own kids with them now. I coached some of these players in the past who are dads now and their kids want to be on the Cardinals which is a good feeling.”

Garza is a big advocate of kids going outside and running around.

“Nowadays kids are all about their video and computer games and a lot of them don‘t want to come out,” Garza said. “Activities like little league are very important because the number of kids coming out to play is going down because more and more parents prefer to keep their kids at home. I know it’s hot outside but we are in South Texas, it’s always hot.”

Dispelling gossip from previous seasons, Garza is coaching his final little league campaign.

“Yes it is,” Garza said. “My boy (Noe Jr.) is going to be 12 and maybe I will move up with him to the next level (Bishop-Driscoll Junior League).”